Posted: 5/3/2010 11:24:06 AM EDT
| For those in the know. What would you in your area expect pay scale of a 20 year certified welder for temporary production welding of specialty materials (ie preheated AR/Hardox materials) be? |
|
$25.00 hr. + / - non-union
It's hard to get & keep a decent wage when you have competition for contracts, overhead ect. I've worked fab shops, shipyards, pipe & structural as a certified welder over the past 20 yrs. - I got out of the rat race & got my CWI in '08. Life is much much better now. With 20 yrs. under your belt sitting for the AWS / CWI exam would allow you to put your knowledge to use in another environment. You on the wet side or dry side ? |
Hell, I had a heckuva time convincing folks up here that abrasion-resistant steels even existed.
I charge fifty an hour for me and my rig, port-to-port, if it's repairing somebody's horse trailer and such. Relining a dump bed, rebuilding an excavator bucket or building the friggin' Space Shuttle gets steeper. I end up doing quite a bit of bartering as a result, but always get my money's worth. Not many sub pens in my neck of the woods, and haven't worked a nuke plant (Diablo Canyon) since 1985. |
|
Quoted:
Hell, I had a heckuva time convincing folks up here that abrasion-resistant steels even existed.
I charge fifty an hour for me and my rig, port-to-port, if it's repairing somebody's horse trailer and such. Relining a dump bed, rebuilding an excavator bucket or building the friggin' Space Shuttle gets steeper. I end up doing quite a bit of bartering as a result, but always get my money's worth. Not many sub pens in my neck of the woods, and haven't worked a nuke plant (Diablo Canyon) since 1985. What is strictly your time worth, using their equipment lets say building buckets? |
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
Hell, I had a heckuva time convincing folks up here that abrasion-resistant steels even existed.
I charge fifty an hour for me and my rig, port-to-port, if it's repairing somebody's horse trailer and such. Relining a dump bed, rebuilding an excavator bucket or building the friggin' Space Shuttle gets steeper. I end up doing quite a bit of bartering as a result, but always get my money's worth. Not many sub pens in my neck of the woods, and haven't worked a nuke plant (Diablo Canyon) since 1985. What is strictly your time worth, using their equipment lets say building buckets? This area would support no more than twenty, to be fair. Most places I've seen are around $18 for a top hand. We're pretty rural, and most hayfarmers/loggers have someone on staff who can bubblegum some shit together for a while. I have another regular job, and only use my rig for weekend stuff. That probably seems awfully low, but the local economy drives it, and you can only expect what the market will support. |
|
Welders in the field for the company that I work seasonal for is $25/hr for boiler tig welders with structural certs. If you go work in the company shop, its dropped 30%. Generally, when the shutdowns end guys end up going out of state for a few months and come back here to work the fall shutdown season.
I guess you'd say it all depends on your location, really. Expect different wages in different states. |
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
I guess you'd say it all depends on your location, really. Expect different wages in different states. That's why I am asking. 
You want to factor in the cost of living as well. There were a couple of listings with the Idaho Dept of Labor for a Welder and a Fabricator for $12.00/hr (temporary agency). This is SE Idaho, where the cost of living is rather low, but one would expect that if they worked-out with the company that the pay would go up once hired as a permanent employee. I'd expect that it would go to about $15.00. The listings also wanted someone who could train others too. There are lots of guys around here who claim to be welders, but they are kinda like me who can fairly reliably stick metal together, but not always get good welds. Nor, do they understand why and when to preheat. |
|
Not exactly in your sphere but before we shut out heavy steel fab shop our top of the line welder made just under $40/hour but he was also in charge of all the welders and was more than just a welder and was in charge of buying materials/equipment as well. Other guys were running between $18-25 or there abouts. |
I'm trying though.
|
I paid the last certified welder I had working for me $42/hr + benefits for anything carbon steel and $57/hr for orbital stainless. Most guys that do wet side welding for piping and have that kind of experience make about $35/hr around here for non-union and $82/hr for union. |
| I've got some really good buddies that work for a major tractor manufacturer. They start at about 16.50. More money comes in if you work 2nd-3rd shift, bonuses, and other stuff. Of course, they are a bunch of union cocksuckers that hardly do anything other than get over on hard American workers. Just kidding, they are hard working, tax paying, productive dudes raising families and living the American dream. |
|
Quoted:
I paid the last certified welder I had working for me $42/hr + benefits for anything carbon steel and $57/hr for orbital stainless. Most guys that do wet side welding for piping and have that kind of experience make about $35/hr around here for non-union and $82/hr for union. Can I come work for you???? 
|
| My neighbor and friend does structural steel and welding. He has certs for horz and vertical steel arc . He is union and make around $40+ hr, includes vacation and sick pay. He is trying to get on the Bay Bridge project, San Francisco. The welders there get 10 hours a week over time and there are 2 more years of work. |